“
There is, for a moment, this understanding that…you’ll only ever have an approximation of a genuine connection to another human being, and because of that, you can't trust them, and because of that you can probably not even trust yourself — and that is what that Divine taught people.”
Independence is a first generation Divine. Its supporters are called Independents.
Appearance
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History
Pre-COUNTER/Weight
Independence was, before the events of COUNTER/Weight, one of the earliest Divines made by the Automated Diaspora. During this time, together with its Candidate, Kadaknath, it bore witness to the second use of the stellar combustors, and declared that the Diaspora would build another, more beautiful world for every one destroyed.[1]
With Kamala Cadence
30-40 thousand years after, it took the candidate Kamala Cadence, with whom it had an unusually healthy relationship for the time. As a result, a case can be made that Kamala was the first true excerpt.
However, despite their strong bond, a rift grew between the two, as Kamala, who had been working on creating the Resonant Orbit, refused to include in the core tenets the right of a Divine to die. As a result, the two split, and Independence left the fleet.[2][3]
On Earth
Independence contacted members of the Old Earth Cult, who brought him to Earth and began to worship him. Though many details are unknown, we do know his presence led to conflict and civil war, and he directed the movement of the planet to orbit the center of the Milky Way. When the New Earth Hegemony arose, they forced the Divine out. Over the course of hundreds of years, Independence moved on a trajectory out of the center of the galaxy and into the Benthos system. A solar flare then altered its course to the planet of Quire.[4]
In the Fleet
On Quire, its influence caused the end of the Glassed Age and the beginning of the Blooded Age. It deliberately manipulated political factions to vie against each other and spread discord, leading to a massive, genocidal civil war which culminated in its defeat. Before its deactivation, it created the Iconoclasts to plan the creation of Volition, while some of its former followers, the Independents, became part of the Divine Fleet.
When Gig Kep-hart, Leaf Cart-horn and Lily Lysander found Independence's heart, and it was stolen by Louis Armstrong, the planet-being of Quire took control of Gig's broadcasting ability to share the history of Quire, and the damning effects of Independence on Quire's history, with the Divine Fleet.
At some point, Independence met with the Doyenne, and proposed that she become his Candidate. As a result, she tasked Grand Magnificent with building him a new body, as he was, at that time, disassembled and scattered across the planet Quire. Grand was not aware of this goal, however, and was instead informed that he was building a new Saint mech. After the body was completed, the heart and connective tissue of Independence were fitted into it; the mech took off to find its mind and meet up, and potentially merge, with Volition.
However, on Volition, Independence encountered a number of individuals, including Grand, Even, and ⸢Signet⸣, who had been sent to stop it. Belgard shrank down it to human size. Grand and Independence conversed about art, both agreeing that the glass body was so much better than the tacky centipede; and it offered him to join it, saying, "I am a Divine. I need a Candidate." Just as Grand Magnificent was about to take his hand, Chthonic jumped in to destroy the Divine, and itself. Independence became a pile of crumbling sand.[5]